Why do you equate "conservatives" with being "free market politicians"? Conservatives are "pro-business" much of the time, but one would be mistaken to define

Why do you equate "conservatives" with being "free market politicians"? Conservatives are "pro-business" much of the time, but one would be mistaken to define pro-business as being the same as pro-free markets. This is why conservatives don't do things like reduce the size of government programs... they merely have private corporations execute those programs (conservatives love to tout these private/public partnerships) or subsidize certain industrial activities, such as ethanol production. The interesting thing is that conservatives can be pro-business in this sense while sharing the exact same basic economics as the progressives. When push comes to shove, the "establishment" Republicans will agree with their Democrat colleagues on such ideas as government being useful in stimulating demand as also stimulating the economy. Where they disagree is who should receive the first benefits of such stimulus (business vs. some "class" based criteria). Actual advocates of free markets usually don't accept a Keynesian view of economics. [edit for additional point] Conservatives do like to paint themselves "capitalists" without any firm definition of the word. For the same reason progressives also like to brand conservatives as both capitalists and free-marketeers (even though they aren't) as the progressives like to turn the whole matter into a package deal... meaning they want to conflate free market thinking with conservative "pro-business thinking".... many more boogeymen to point at being pro-business.